Sunday, April 15, 2007
Staff photo by Gregory Rec
Makail Tipton sits on George Cabot's shoulders at a rally Saturday in Monument Square.
Staff photo by Gregory Rec
More than 200 people marched through the Old Port on Saturday to illustrate where Portland's "new coastline" would be if global warming led to a rise in ocean levels. It was one of more than 35 events in Maine and 1,300 events held nationwide.
"We are calling on Congress to enact regulations that will cut carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent by 2050," said Christian McNeil, a Portland resident who rallied the crowd at the beginning of the noontime march and rally. "That's not impossible. That's the amount it was in 1950."
Even a relatively modest increase of 2 feet -- generally accepted as likely, given the current global warming data -- would leave Commercial Street underwater. At the more aggressive assumption of a 20-foot rise in seas -- chiefly a result of the Greenland ice cap melting -- much of Fore Street would be underwater and the inland Interstate 295 area would be swamped from Forest Avenue to the entrance of Back Cove, and as high as Somerset Street.
A United Nations report on climate change released earlier this month said ocean levels are projected to rise 4.3 feet by 2080. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was written and reviewed by 441 scientists.
The nationwide rallies urging Congressional action on climate change were organized by "Step It Up 2007," spearheaded by a group of students at Vermont's Middlebury College, who used blogs, e-mail messages and word of mouth to spread the word.
In Augusta, Gov. John Baldacci addressed a gathering near the State House.
"The most important things that we have a responsibility to do in government are to prepare our children for a bright future and to preserve and protect our natural resources," Baldacci said. "Global warming is real. There is overwhelming scientific agreement that we are endangering the environment that sustains us."
The first Maine rally occurred at 4 a.m., atop Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor, where five students and a staff member left the College of the Atlantic and hiked up the snow-covered auto road for a sunrise demonstration. In Wiscasset, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-1st District, and state Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, joined about 150 people at a global climate change "teach-in" at the Chewonki Foundation's Center for Environmental Education.
"It was really a special event," said Chewonki's Renewable Energy Intern Seth Silverman, who arranged workshops on local foods, "green campus" issues and how to make changes at home to mitigate climate change. "It seems like a hopeful day across the country."
Robyn Clay said she and her family went to the Portland rally because "it's such an important issue." Clay was pulling her children, ages 7 and 3, along in a wagon with pasted-on "waves" at the edges. "We wanted to expose the kids to this. We talk about it, and they relate to it mainly through what's happening to polar bears. That's their level."
McNeil and other speakers urged the sympathetic crowd to think about ways to change daily habits to help the environment, from carpooling and bicycling more to using less heating or air conditioning.
"A lot of it just involves being frugal. We need to get back to Yankee frugality," McNeil said.
Mixed in the crowd were people holding signs bearing slogans such as "Save Our Planet," "Fossil Fuels Are Not the Answer," and "Good Atmospheres Are Hard to Find," with some wearing snorkeling gear or carrying surfboards, alluding to the rising water.
"We can get angry and we can get upset -- and we should -- but it's important to do something about it," said Maine House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, at the Portland rally, listing some of the state's activity in adopting environmentally friendly policies. "We will not be in denial about one of the most significant threats to our future."
"There are so many things we're going to have to do -- small things, big things," said state Rep. Jon Hinck, D-Portland, foreseeing an end to everything from idling tour buses to parents aimlessly driving young children around at night to get them to go to sleep. "But we're winning. It's slow, but it's happening."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff Writer Noel K. Gallagher can be contacted at 324-4888 or at:
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The ground hog and Al Gore lied.
Hey Kevin,lets get our sweaters ready!!report abuse
Have YOU changed a lightbulb? I bet you haven't. I have a cousin who says that it's his right to burn as much gasoline as he feels like... you're probably one of them, too.report abuse
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